Project CARS funding had a huge boost recently and now they are almost €150,000 from reaching the goal of €3.75Million euros! No info has been released yet of what will happen when the value is reached but theres a big chance they will close the funding and also the access to the Pre-Alpha to those that havent registered yet!

Recently it was announced that a major German car manufacturer offered Slightly Mad Studios access to their vehicles, no info has been disclosed about who this manufacturer is but since RUF and BMW are in, it leaves us with Audi, Opel and Mercedes!

Also the 1980 Ford Capri Zakspeed Group 5 is almost ready to be ingame, according to the developers theres a high probability of having this beast ingame this week. Check the amazing looks of this car below, even in a pre-alpha state with missing textures and ambient occlusion it already looks amazing with such refined details like the fully modeled engine!

Well, it wouldn't be Opel since they are owned by GM, and thus not German. I was really hoping the deal with Magna was going to go through back in 2009... then Canada would have had a Canadian-owned auto Manufacturer!

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Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night — Isaac Asimov

Im not very familiar with the wheel but i can suggest you to look at these threads @ main forums WMD ForumWMD Forum

Some people have reported that configuring the wheel ingame as if it was a G25 also gave a better feeling to it.

EDIT: 8th November

The developers just released a preview of the wipers working on the Gumpert in a storm condition where you can see the rain drops being clean out of the windshield ! Looks amazing check it out here! (only for members)

Another member jumped into the trailer making bandwagon and made something pretty sweet . Check out "Drive it" by plm5!

All participants of the competition have the chance to win one of the prizes, you don’t have to be a mega talented racer to walk away with some new hardware so read below on how to enter!

All Project CARS members regardless of membership level are invited to join! Simply fire up Project CARS, click the “Events” button and register a valid time on the Event Leaderboard with the BMW Z4 GT3 at Florence Short.

All members that have posted a valid time will be automatically entered in a random prize draw that everyone can follow live from the SMS offices on 19th November (5pm GMT).

Message from the Developers to everyone who contributed to the project.

Quote:

Dear Members and Visitors,

Thanks to support from more than 80.000 dedicated members, Project CARS has successfully reached its funding goal of 3.75 Million Euro.

Purchasing and upgrading of tool packs is no longer possible.

All existing members will continue to receive the perks and benefits of their chosen tool packs as the title continues to be developed.

Those of you who missed out on becoming members in time are invited to check wmdportal.com for the latest news on Project CARS. We`re looking forward to everyone giving Project CARS a try once it hits the shelves on 2013 and we hope to welcome you as members of future WMD projects as well.

We wish to thank all our passionate members for making World of Mass Development such an overwhelming success and allowing us to independently fund and develop Project CARS.

The Slightly Mad Studios Team

EDIT: UPDATE 13th November

Great news everyone, Slightly Mad Studios just announced that Nicolas Hamilton (Lewis Hamilton brother) just joined the project as a handling Consultant!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Press Release

Slightly Mad Studios is delighted to announce the newest contributor to Project CARS as real-life racing driver Nicolas Hamilton has joined the studio as Handling Consultant for the new title.

Nicolas is an excellent fit for Project CARS as his experience combines vast knowledge from racing in the real world and roots in simulation racing, allowing him to understand both sides and effectively help Project CARS fulfil its potential.

Born in Herfordshire, England, in 1992, Nicolas was brought up in the motorsports world alongside older brother Lewis. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Nicolas has always made sure this wouldn’t stop him from pursing his passion for racing.

After a first try of karting at the age of 7, Nicolas’ racing career kicked into higher gear in 2010 when he impressed everyone testing a BMW M3 at Palmer Sport. His smooth driving style earned him his MSA Novice Racing License and secured him a seat in the Air Asia Renault Clio Cup where he has been competing ever since.

Aside from making it in the real racing world, Nicolas has also made a name for himself in simulation racing, finishing first in the 2009 SBTCC Championship and racing successful in plenty of other community-organized sim racing events.

Nicolas will be assisting the development team with making the handling in Project CARS as authentic as possible, as well as providing other general feedback.

Hes pretty good, already set alot of records in several tracks using a different number of cars and i honestly suggest you guys try to beat his records !

And if this wasnt amazing enough, they also announced that Ben Collins is coming back this month! Oh yeah The STIG is back !

Been a while since my last post and alot have happened in the meanwhile, but before heading into the good news heres a bad one, the Project CARS - 2 day opening that has been spoken to allow new members has been delayed for a while due to external circumstances.
As soon as theres some updates on this matter be sure that i will come here and tell you guys, so be sure to subscribe this thread!

So lets head to the good news!

- The STIG is back from his adventures and along with Nicolas Hamilton have been helping the developers improve the physics on many cars, it is still far from finished but showing a huge progress already!
- A new track has been added to the current available list - Emirates Raceway - Dubai Autodrome
- The Ford GT40 MkIV has been added recently to the list
- Wet effects added to many tracks
- The Community liveries from the Z4 Contest have been added ingame and are now available to select
- The M1 Procar livery contest had alot of submissions from the Community and the voting currently is underway, be sure to vote in your favorite livery!
- Soft-stop and other steering wheel improvements have been checked inAnd much more !!(wouldnt fit in here)

Oh and as you know, the best is usually left for last... so heres a bombshell still hot (announced just now) that any racing fan will enjoy:

Solitude Rennstrecke - Pre-alpha export!

That's right guys, the first export just came out a few minutes ago and it will be available soon to every Project CARS members!

The legendary Solitude races began in 1903 with a hillclimb sprint for motorcycles starting downtown from Stuttgart’s western railwaystation and finishing up at Solitude castle. A couple of years later the start was moved to Schützenhaus in the suburb Heslach. Until 1924 this was the track for the annual hillclimb race, since 1922 also for sports and race cars. Mercedes from the beginning sent their best racing cars and drivers in every year and at BMW they decided to debut their first racing motorcycles in this already well known race. In 1925 for the first time there was a circuit race ‘Rund um die Solitude’ leading over about 22 km each lap. The circuit was considered as being very demanding and was compared with the famous Targa Florio in Sicily.

A new month has begun, so it’s time to check what happened so far since my last post.
There were some big developments in the vehicle department with the addition of 4 new cars !! Yes you read it right 4 cars in less than 3 weeks!

These 4 have put a lot of smiles in everyone faces around here and I believe it will do the same to some of you! :D

A new track has also been added, Solitude Rennstrecke, still in a very wip state but already showing how great this classic track was back in the old days when the races were done by man and machine only, no electronics there to help you out a pure driving joy to have! (pictures will come later on when its more developed)

Besides these great news the developers also shown some early sketches of the Grid Girls to be used in the game and boy must I say they look sexy ! Unfortunately I cannot post them here because they are on the edge of forum rules but believe me they would make something move down there!

Qualifying mode has been introduced as well, only available currently in single player mode but it gives you a taste of what’s coming into the multiplayer eventually.

The handling consultants, Nicolas Hamilton and Ben Collins have been giving some amazing feedback and as a result of that the physics recently improved largely on most of the cars but the most exciting ones to be the new Ford Focus RS, Racer L4-RS, Caterham R500/Classic and Formula A (F1).
There were a few, of course that didn’t improve as much and it still feels a bit out of place but with the constant feedback given by the consultants and the community they will surely get there soon enough!

In the visual department there were some big updates also, new weather functionalities have been added, as some new rain droplet improvements that make you astonished of how realistic it look and react when hitting your car and windshield, you can see some pictures in the links above!

Andy Tudor also introduced recently new UI improvements, which will improve the menu navigations greatly!

About the 2 day opening to new members to register it seems to be taking a bit more than expected, as soon theres more info about it I will post on this thread, be sure to subscribe so you don’t lose the track from sight! ;)

That’s all for now, as soon as more developments happen I will be sure to post here.